Pitchfork

Coming a couple months after the unveiling of their first Timbaland-produced track, the next step in the Rapture's transition from dance-punks to just plain dance artists is a round of North American DJ dates.

Featuring band members Vito Roccoforte, Gabriel Andruzzi, and Mattie Safer spinning at various stops, the month-long itinerary isn't quite large enough to be called a full-blown tour, but it does cover quite a bit of ground.

The first of these DJ dates is August 27 in Toronto.

In related Rapture news, the band is reportedly in the process of cooking up an entry in !K7's DJ-Kicks mix series.

Photo by Steven Dewall

Three months, and three mini Mirah tours that find the K Records songstress buddying up with three very different acts. Up first are a few dates to close out August with labelmate Melanie Valera's Tender Forever. Mirah will then follow a set at MusicFest NW with a September California tour where she'll join Spectratone International in performing their collaborative Share This Place LP. And come October, she'll link up for a way too brief East Coast run with Canuck R&B popsters No Kids.

Mirah, who always seems to find herself in awfully good company, does just that yet again on Knw-Yr-Own Records' recent No Band Is an Island compilation.

In the Future, Black Mountain will tour North America, as evidenced by the recent addition of new dates to their previously reported summer schedule. In the present, the Vancouver band heads to the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco this weekend and two British Columbia festivals next weekend: Rifflandia and the New Pornographers' Stanley Park Singing Exhibition.

Somewhat randomly, Black Mountain will play a festival in Brazil in November. Also randomly, they're on the new UNKLE album.

Photo by Nilina Mason-Campbell

After taking a well-deserved break from touring for the last couple months, Black Lips will hit the road again starting at the end of August.

The Atlanta foursome's first month of dates is in Europe, and starting in October, they have a bunch of California-heavy shows in the U.S.

In other Black Lips news, the band finally has an official non-MySpace website. Looks good, dudes.

Though its release on CD is still forthcoming, That Night, A Forest Grew, the Clientele's third EP for the Spanish Acuarela imprint is available now from eMusic. As with the band's other EPs for the label, the four song set is intended as a little experiment between albums, which hopefully means a new Clientele LP is in the works.

The band describes the set as the "most commercial and-- shockingly-- danceable" thing they've ever done.

The Clientele have but a single show on their docket: an action-packed gig at London's 229 Club on September 6, where they'll share a bill will Camera Obscura, Frightened Rabbit, Field Music offshoot the Week That Was, and others.

Photo by Eirik Lande

Tonight, August 21, in the biggest little city in the world, the planet's biggest little funkateer (who isn't Prince), Beck, will embark on the first leg of his two-part North American tour. The jaunt sees Beck staying awfully close to the West Coast through the rest of August. When he picks back up again in mid-September, he'll bring the noise (and also, presumably, the funk) to a wide swath of the rest of the continent.

Hot young things MGMT will support on a good portion of the dates. UPDATE: Looks like Devendra Banhart's opening the show in Reno tonight!

Of course, none of this would be possible without the motivating effects of Modern Guilt, Beck's still-fresh LP from this summer. And, though Europe may be shut out on the touring tip this time out, they've recently been shot through with a "Gamma Ray" courtesy of Beck and one Jay Reatard. Careful where you point that thing, dudes!

It's been a whole summer since we've heard from the Decemberists. Besides drummer John Moen's Perhapst project, the last time we checked in with Colin Meloy's Portland crew, they were raising the ire of conservative critics over their appearance at an Obama rally. We're sure those critics are going to love the band's new digital/vinyl singles series, the first installment of which features a tune called "Valerie Plame". According to a press release, "Valerie Plame" is "an amorous tribute to the onetime CIA operative...written from the point-of-view of one of Plame's inside contacts upon discovering her true identity." [Hey, doesn't that sound like it's the sequel to "The Bagman's Gambit" from Picaresque?- Ed] We'd expect nothing less labyrinthine from the makers of The Crane Wife.

Always the Bridesmaid: A Singles Series comes in three volumes. Volume I features "Valerie Plame" and "O New England" and comes out October 14. Volume II features "Days of Elaine", "Days of Elaine [Long]", and "I'm Sticking With You" and comes out November 4. Volume III features "Record Year" and "Raincoat Song" and comes out December 2.

In the U.S., Capitol will release Always the Bridesmaid digitally, and the Decemberists' own Y.A.B.B. Records, in conjunction with Jealous Butcher Records, will handle the 12" releases via the band's online store and select independent shops. In the UK, Rough Trade will release Always the Bridesmaid digitally and as a series of 7"s.

The Decemberists are planning some yet-to-be-announced U.S. shows for November, but for now, their only date is an Election Day Eve (November 3) appearance on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" to perform "Valerie Plame". They're also working on a full-length follow-up to The Crane Wife with Always the Bridesmaid producer and The Crane Wife co-producer Tucker Martine.

Bloc Party's Intimacy isn't the first album to be released shortly after the announcement of its very existence. Nor is it the first to utilize the internet as a launching pad before it makes its way to stores. (Intimacy will be released digitally tomorrow, with physical copies to follow October 27 in the UK via Wichita and October 28 from Atlantic in the U.S.) In fact, just shy of a year on from In Rainbows-- and with recent experiments from the Raconteurs, Nine Inch Nails, Gnarls Barkley, Girl Talk and others still fresh in the minds of many-- the release strategy for Intimacy almost seems, well, typical.

Nonetheless, we're always curious about the motivations leading to such release decisions. We spoke with bassist Gordon Moakes about the rationale behind the unexpected Intimacy, the album's music, and getting back into the game after paternity leave.

Pitchfork: I think it's safe to say no one outside of the Bloc Party camp was expecting this album. Or at least not so soon.

Gordon Moakes: No, you're right. You're right. That's kind of big news.

Pitchfork: Can you tell me just how recently the album was finished? From what I've heard, it hasn't been long.

GM: The recording effectively was finished in July. So not a huge amount of time ago. It was mixed fairly recently, so I got a final master CD probably last week.

Pitchfork: Wow. What made you decide to turn it around so quickly? I mean, I'd read interviews as recently as last month in which [Bloc Party frontman] Kele [Okereke] and [guitarist] Russell [Lissack] talked about a new record either late this year or early next year. So this decision must have been made since then.

GM: I think we just wanted to see how it went. I think the worst thing you can do is sort of go "Yeah, it'll be ready as a download in August," you know. We were working very much towards winter, I suppose. And then, if it was ready sooner, then, great, we can put it out. But there's nothing worse than telling your fans the record's gonna be here in August and not be ready. We've come out on the wrong side before on that one, so the whole idea was sort of, be conservative and then get it out if it's done, you know?

Pitchfork: Sure. Are you prepared for the onslaught of all the attention and the tour and everything?

GM: I'm ready. I've kind of had a bit of time off 'cause I just had a baby.

Pitchfork: Oh yes, congratulations, by the way!

GM: Thank you. So I'm actually kind of raring to go, 'cause the other guys have been on tour and I've been home. But in terms of Bloc Party stuff, it's been quiet for me. So, yeah, I'm quite ready to get going with something new. I mean, we always knew that if we did it this way, it would just be sort of a nice surprise for people. I don't think any of our fans expected this early to have anything out this year, so we always knew that it would be a bonus for us as a band to be out playing new stuff and hopefully for the audience to have new material, too.

Pitchfork: Were your record labels, Atlantic and Wichita, supportive of your decision?

GM: I mean, kind of the daddy of our labels in a way is Wichita in the UK, who were the first label to find us. So even though we are now sort of effectively going to Atlantic in the States, you know, most of the ideas are led by us and Wichita, and Wichita are a very kind of cottage sort of label. Just the number of people work there and how accessible they are. It's four guys who work in an office, not far away from where we live. So we can pop in.

We've worked very closely with them with the ideas. It's very much been a collective sort of effort. If we'd been outside the label system... you haven't mentioned it, but there's a precedent with this new Radiohead, which, you know, has supposedly sort of shaken up how this kind of thing is done. They weren't on a label at the time, so they had that freedom. With us, ultimately, this label wants a return on their investment. But the nice thing about it, I think, was that they were just as keen for it to be innovative as we were. You know, that's what I love about Wichita. I trust them, really. I'm not suspicious of their motives when it comes to releasing our music. They love it, and they want to see it do as well as we do.

Fun, fun, and, and course, fun are the order of the day(s) at Austin, Texas' Fun Fun Fun Fest, going down at the fair city's Waterloo Park November 8-9. With a name like that, how could it not be? Good times shall abound in the truly killer lineup, matching the sounds of today with a fuckton of the punk/hardcore of yesterday.

The makers of mirth for the two-day jubilee this time out include Clipse, the National, Deerhoof, Trail of Dead, Dan Deacon, Bad Brains, Islands, Atmosphere, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, St. Vincent, YACHT, Shearwater, Kool Keith (as Dr. Octagon), Frightened Rabbit, Killdozer, Annuals, Dead Milkmen, Flipper, Centro-matic, Bouncing Souls, Parts & Labor, ALL, the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Magnetic Morning (aka Sam Fogarino of Interpol and Adam Franklin of Swervedriver), Bishop Allen, Tim Fite, Dengue Fever, Z-Trip, Minus the Bear, the Spinto Band, Rival Schools, and more. There's also something called "The Revival Tour" featuring Tom Gabel of Against Me!, Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music, Lucero's Ben Nichols, and Avail's Tim Barry performing solo and together.

The only thing more fun would be a third day. Next year, maybe?

There's just no such things as too many digital EPs for Death Cab for Cutie. The Pacific Northwesterners have supplemented their recent Narrow Stairs and even more recent iTunes Live EP with a Rhapsody exclusive EP featuring a set they played for Bay Area radio station KFOG. The EP is called KFOG Private Concert, and it's available now.

Death Cab can't seem to get enough of the road, either. In addition to the band's U.S. tour and recently announced shows opening for Neil Young, frontman Ben Gibbard and guitarist/producer Chris Walla will get their Rage on by playing a show in Denver during the shortly forthcoming Democratic National Convention. The duo's acoustic set will be on August 26 at a private educational event called "Concert for a Cooler Planet" presented by the League of Conservation Voters.